Draft letter circulates among GOP candidates demanding more debate control

A new draft letter is circulating among the Republican candidates for president demanding greater concessions and control from TV networks that sponsor their debates, following the Sunday evening gathering of campaign officials in Alexandria.

The letter, obtainedby POLITICO and drafted for the campaigns by veteran GOP attorney Ben Ginsberg, asks networks to commit to, among other things, not asking candidates to raise their hands in answer to a question, not holding a lightning round, not allowing “candidate-to-candidate questioning” and keeping the temperature in the debate hall below 67 degrees.

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Ginsberg sent the draft letter on Monday morning. It has yet to be signed off on by the campaigns. “Thoughts/edits/approvals welcomed,” Ginsberg wrote. “You all indicated last night that the letter should be sent no later than Tuesday.”

The 2016 debates have drawn record TV audiences and, at the same time, been a flashpoint of frustration for the campaigns.

Top strategists for the Republican campaigns had gathered Sunday evening at the Hilton in Alexandria at a meeting code-named “family dinner” to hash out how to take back control. The effort was part of a push to seize back power from the Republican National Committee, which had been negotiating with the TV networks on behalf of the candidates.

“I think it was productive in that campaigns will now assume negotiation of format instead of the RNC,” said Gail Gitcho, a spokeswoman for Bobby Jindal.

In the draft letter, the campaigns are concerned about the TV networks showing their empty podiums after commercial (and thus bathroom) breaks, leaving their microphones on during those breaks and camera shots that show their notes. In addition, they seek to prevent are props or pledges by the candidates and want to ensure members of the audience are not wearing any political paraphernalia (“shirts, buttons, signs, etc.”).“I think we offer content that attracts 20 million people. It’s very valuable and the media gets rich off of us,” Sen. Rand Paul told POLITICO on Friday. “I think it should be a negotiation like any other negotiation."

Among the sharpest complaints from the candidate have been the moderators. Various candidates have complained about both the quantity of questions they receive and their “quality.”

“The campaigns' will use the manner in which your debate(s) are run (and changes you say you will make from your past debates), the quality and fairness of your moderators' questions, their enforcement of the rules and their ability to achieve parity in distribution and quality of questions and time among the candidates to evaluate whether the candidates wish to participate in your future debates,” the letter says.

The Ginsberg draft letter asks the networks: “Will you commit to provide equal time/an equal number of questions of equal quality (substance as opposed to “gotcha” or frivolous) to each candidate?”

Campaigns have other concerns, as well. "Who is receiving tickets in addition to the candidates?" the proposed letter ask. "Who’s in charge of distributing those tickets and filling the seats?"